HEATHER NAUERT: Barack Obama attacking John McCain once again on the economy and the market turmoil today. Our John Gibson has new information on the Democratic presidential nominee and the mortgage mess for us now. What have you got John?

JOHN GIBSON: Alright Heather. Lehman Brothers' collapse is traced back to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two big mortgage banks that got a federal bailout a few weeks ago. Freddie and Fannie used huge lobbying budgets and political contributions to keep regulators off their backs. A group called the center for responsive politics keeps track of which politicians get Fannie and Freddie political contributions. The top three U.S. Senators getting big Fannie and Freddie political bucks were democrats and number two is Senator Barack Obama. Now, remember, he has only been in the Senate four years but still managed to grab the number two spot ahead of John Kerry, decades in the senate, and Chris Dodd who is chairman of the senate banking committee. Fannie and Freddie have been creations of the congressional democrats and the Clinton white house, designed to make mortgages available to more people, and as it turned out, some people who couldn't afford them. Fannie and Freddie have also been places for big Washington democrats to go to work in the semi-private sector and pocket millions. The Clinton administration's white house budget director Franklin Raines ran Fannie and collected 50 million dollars. Jamie Gurilli, Clinton Justice Apartment Official, worked for Fannie and took home 26 million dollars. Big Democrat Jim Johnson, recently on Obama's VP search committee has hauled in millions from his Fannie Mae C.E.O. job. Now remember, Obama's ads and stump speeches attack McCain and republican policies for the current financial turmoil. It is demonstrably not Republican policy and worse, it appears the man attacking McCain, Senator Obama, was at the head of the line when the piggy's lined up at the Fannie and Freddie trough for campaign bucks. Senator Barack Obama, number two on the Fannie/Freddie list of favored politicians after just four short years in the senate. Next time you see that ad, you might notice he fails to mention that part of the Fannie and Freddie problem. Heather.

NAUERT: Wow, that's quite a report, begs the question -- where is John McCain on this?

GIBSON: John McCain is a measly $20,000 after over 20 years so he really doesn't even come close in the political contribution department.

NAUERT: Interesting. All right. John Gibson, great to see you, as always, excellent thank you.

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What do we do to get more people to see this? They actually reported it here before McCain mentioned it in his speech in Vienna, OH this afternoon.
I doubt this will be mentioned on CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, or in a AP news article as I have been looking for it all day. Here that phone ringing at 3:00 a.m. - It's your wake up call. Don't elect another corrupt pay-to-play politician to the highest office in the land. Just say NO to OBAMA. Vote yes to McCain/Palin to bring reform to Washington.

The ny slimes? No one of any honesty or courage believes that tool of the dnc. You might as well have said that charly gibson said it.

Hey man, while you're out there "fact checking", why don't you tell us all why, "crusader for the people", upChuck schummer isn't running in front of the nearest camera to tell us about frannie and feddie ? Well I'll tell you why, he doesn't have the stones (could it be ol' chuckles is getting out cajoned by someone!?) to cry foul about something he is up to his scalp in.

It's called buying votes ya dingleberry. Politicians (mostly dems) go around giving away (the taxpayers) farm, after enabling themselves to do so with peachy keen legislation making it easy for people who can't possibly afford to legitimately buy houses to, you guessed it, buy houses.

Course this is just chump change to bill ayers and his cronie/stooge, b.obama. They were plugged into 50 mil private funds that were matched by public money so don't worry j(has to go)ptoo, your man child savior will not lack for money and the lamestreamers will NEVER say a word about the truth. There, ya happy now?

Doesn't matter, he's still gonna lose come November because the American people can see right through him just as anyone who reads your screeds can see through you. Hvae fun while you can, cause the party she is almost done.

There's a reason for the difference between the OpenSecrets numbers and the NYTimes numbers.
The OpenSecrets numbers are based on donations made at the time the donors were actually involved with Fannie/Freddie at the time the donation. The NY Times numbers are based on total donations given by people involved in Fannie/Freddie regardless of whether they were actually involved with Fannie/Freddie at the time of the donation.

If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole. - John McCain, May 25, 2006

The question now is why didn't anyone act on this warning?

More importantly why wasn't the reforms suggested in 2000 acted upon? The Senate took up a measure put forward by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (a republican) only to have it blocked again by Fanny mae & mac Democrats to block the reform.

In 2005 repubs in the House offered the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2005. It passed the House but died in the Senate without a vote.

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.

As usual the Dems shit themselves in the face of reform.

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

''I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,'' Mr. Watt said.

Yep, McCain was bound to have received donations from some of these people. And Yes, 169k is a sizable sum, but don't hurt your elbows trying to pretend this outstrips the already proven connections between Democrats and FM/FM. Not by a long shot.

Unless we know what these individuals lobbied for, we can't come to any automatic conclusions. The old axiom "follow the money" is a good one to adhere to, but not to the exclusion of all else.

This is something that should be considered when Jay (in a more recent post) asks, "Too good to be true?" There are a lot of other questions not being asked when we just look at numbers. To what extent do these people take active roles in each campaign? What exactly did they lobby for? What are their past executive histories? Who else did they contribute to? What other boards do they sit on?

For instance: Former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines (99 - 04), while not a defacto member of Obama's staff, is actively advising Obama's campaign on housing policies.

This is some serious DNC manipulation.
Perhaps they are using the fall of the economy to seriously persuade people to vote them in office so they control it all and usher us into the most socialistic American society ever. Sounds about right.

AS REPORTED BY THE NY TIMES REGARDING A BUSH ADMINISTRATION PROPOSAL IN 2003 TO REGULATE FANNIE MAE
"These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis," said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. "The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."

"I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing," Mr. Watt said.

Aren't these contributons made by indvidual employees? And since most F/F employees are based in Washington, wouldn't they tend to be Democrats?

Looks to me that the actual figures that employees people who worked at Freddie/Fannie donated are:

Obama about $112,000 in employee donations, federal campaign finance reports show.
John McCain $16,400 from Freddie and Fannie employees since 2005.
Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, took one donation, for $500, from one Freddie employee.
McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, is Fannie- and Freddie-free, having never run for federal office.

why you think the media does not jump on this report on obama making millions off the freedie and fannie deal and others , the ones not talking , had their hands in this pie too and also the clintons made millions off this deal also , why is this not being told , now you know why when obama hated on hillary, now she is for him makes you think ?????????????